Wood Stove or Coal Stove Why Can't It Be Wood and Coal Stove

This post will probably souond crazy to you coal guys. So my stove pre-epa used to be advertised as wood and coal, after EPA regs just coal but the design didn't change. The thing burns coal fantastic, I can go 24+ hrs without touching it, it burns wood horribly, tons of smoke unless I am blasting it, load it every 2 hrs with no control over heat, and if I forget and leave the top knobs open I get a wonderful secondary burn in my flue, making me believe I have a chimney fire. Why doesn't someone make a EPA wood stove and a coal burner? Seems to me all that would be needed is separate air controls and a cat bypass baffle system, maybe a few other minor tweaks, removable grates and such , but it should be able to be done. I'd like to be able to burn both efficiently, I am currently sitting on ~14 cords worth of wood at various seasoning stages in my yard that I paid 300$ for with my labor, market value at a modest 200$ a cord, I'm probably sitting on ~3k$. I thought of selling the wood to pay for the coal, however, because of where I get it I can't sell it, unless it's to someone at work, but that hosts another set of logistics issues. I am considering picking up an EPA wood stove so I can efficiently use the wood, however it won't burn coal. It's one of those life conundrums, I enjoy burning both fuel sources, I actually enjoy bucking and splitting wood, I enjoy 24hr burns from coal... Not sure what I'm asking here, mostly confused on a fuel source, but don't want to pick exclusively one of them.

Buy a Glenwood No. 6

You only have one stove?? This is the beginning of the four R's of 'stove creep'.

First the Realization that you have two fuel sources and one stove doesn't burn both efficiently.

Then the Rationalization, convincing yourself (easy) and the spouse (harder) that two stoves are needed to make the most of burning each fuel.

Then the Requisition of the second stove.

Finally the Relaxation of burning whichever fuel you are in the mood for, is convenient and/or available and you have the energy to procure.

Beware, this 'stove creep' condition could mutate and you may start to look for multiple coal stove's.

Oh no, another disease...I have had "stove creep" all year and had no idea. I have been trying to convince my wife if we buy a wood stove that I need to keep this one, or set up a pad in our bedroom and flue for a wood stove while keeping the coal one in the living room. I've also been trying to sell her on an outdoor gassification boiler...yea, there is something wrong with me...
I also mentioned modifying my existing stove with secondary burn tubes...

With that much wood I would invest in an EPA wood stove to use when your in a mood to burn wood.

If I had that wood much I'd try selling some of it.

I've been burning wood this season because it was free. What a PIA. Coal stove going in this week.

dumper wrote:Oh no, another disease...I have had "stove creep" all year and had no idea. I have been trying to convince my wife if we buy a wood stove that I need to keep this one, or set up a pad in our bedroom and flue for a wood stove while keeping the coal one in the living room. I've also been trying to sell her on an outdoor gassification boiler...yea, there is something wrong with me...
I also mentioned modifying my existing stove with secondary burn tubes...

Convince your wife on that OWB gassifier & then 2 yrs from now,when tending that thing & caring for it gets old
You bitch about that thing,your wife overhears you & says..I TOLD YOU SO !!!
I can say from experience... putting an outdoor unit to work is NOT worth it !!
If you really feel the need to burn wood,set-up a unit in your basement,you will thank yourself many times ,over the next xx yrs.

windyhill4.2 wrote:

dumper wrote:Oh no, another disease...I have had "stove creep" all year and had no idea. I have been trying to convince my wife if we buy a wood stove that I need to keep this one, or set up a pad in our bedroom and flue for a wood stove while keeping the coal one in the living room. I've also been trying to sell her on an outdoor gassification boiler...yea, there is something wrong with me...
I also mentioned modifying my existing stove with secondary burn tubes...

Convince your wife on that OWB gassifier & then 2 yrs from now,when tending that thing & caring for it gets old
You bitch about that thing,your wife overhears you & says..I TOLD YOU SO !!!
I can say from experience... putting an outdoor unit to work is NOT worth it !!
If you really feel the need to burn wood,set-up a unit in your basement,you will thank yourself many times ,over the next xx yrs.

And,....... what's the life span of OWB, for how much they cost to buy ? From what I'm hearing they don't seem to last long. Divide that cost up per year of the life span as part of the heating cost added to the cost of wood. Then compared to the expense of a restored antique coal stoves, the antiques are a bargain with their extremely long life spans.

Most of the antique coal stoves on this site are about 100 years old - built at the height of coal stove technology, but when wood was still a common fuel, so many of the models were designed to burn both wood and coal very well. Some of those stoves are even much older. One member was cooking and heating with a 135 year old wood/coal kitchen range. Mine's 113 years old, runs 9 months of the year, and is still going strong. My grandkids will likely be using it long after I'm gone. It's designed to also burn wood well, but it will burn 2-3 times longed and with much steadier temps when using coal.

For what money I put into, so far it's averaged out to about $125.00 a year, spread out over the 12 heating seasons that I've been using it. That's a total of about 25,000 hours of running time (not counting the first 101 years of it's life). Can an OBW match that return during it's how-ever-long life span ?

Plus, if you want to do just coal, many of the automatic stokers are decades old and still going. That means their initial cost to buy them is spread out of many more years lowering yearly heating costs.

Sometimes cheap wood can still become expensive to heat with.

Paul

Not sure what an EPA wood stove is ? I bought my wood stove in 1984 , paid 450 new and have been using it ever since. I do enjoy the coal Chubby it keeps the house warm most of the time. But on the coldest of days I burn wood. I like the idea of the glen wood 6 though. My friend has a Glenwood, not sure of number. He burns wood and coal and says it does great with both. Maybe that will be my next stove, been looking.

If the stove lends itself to it and you have the tools and skills to add a secondary burn tube and upper baffle you have a EPS non CAT stove that will burn wood just fine.

ddahlgren wrote:If the stove lends itself to it and you have the tools and skills to add a secondary burn tube and upper baffle you have a EPS non CAT stove that will burn wood just fine.

I agree with that. I think it will burn better than a new wood stove with all the strict epa laws. I converted a 1970's wood stove to burn coal and it does real good, and pretty good with wood too, but there were a LOT of mods done. Secondary air is a cheap and easy mod and a baffle a little more work but not bad.

The Glenwood 5 is a beautiful looking stove. I'll have to research it more, looks like it's an antique and restored only.

Yea the OWB sounds better than it actually is I guess, who the hell wants to go outside when it's freezing.

I have my eye on a wood stove, I also don't want to give up my coal, if I have to buy a fuel I'm buying coal. If I get wood as cheap as I do, I'd like to be able to burn it.

I'd love to do a custom secondary, remove the air/air heat exchanger box, install a baffle with burners under neath it. That's a major redesign though, grind the welds off the top plate and air/air exchanger, fab up the secondary and air feeder with a baffle. It's doable but I consider myself a hack welder, I do stuff no one has to look as and doesn't need to be air tight. I guess I could design it or work with a stove restoration guy to put in a baffle and secondaries. This option is the best of all, but holds the most risk.

Thanks guys, still kicking the can.

Logs wrote:Not sure what an EPA wood stove is ? I bought my wood stove in 1984 , paid 450 new and have been using it ever since. I do enjoy the coal Chubby it keeps the house warm most of the time. But on the coldest of days I burn wood. I like the idea of the glen wood 6 though. My friend has a Glenwood, not sure of number. He burns wood and coal and says it does great with both. Maybe that will be my next stove, been looking.

I've owned a Glenwood #6 for many decades. Burned wood for several of those decades. I wouldn't say a Glenwood #6 burns wood great. Does OK. Burns coal great! You can burn both wood and coal in it, but it's really excellent at burning coal...

Having as much wood as you do, I'd get a modern wood stove. They run far better than older style wood stoves burning wood. You can't burn both fuels well in one stove. There are too many complications between the fuels. The old stoves, like my Glenwood, burn coal very well, but none of them are anywhere near as efficient as a modern wood stove, plain and simple. Modern wood stoves are excellent at burning wood.

dj

Apparently Jotul no longer makes wood and coal stoves.

If you want to burn both wood and coal I would look at the Vogelzang Hearth Deluxe Circulator
The model number for the circulator is VG900. http://www.vogelzang.com. The VG900 circulator is a front loading circulator, has shaker grates, and it has a cooking surface and it is EPA exempt according to their literature.

Logs wrote:Not sure what an EPA wood stove is ?

About two years ago or so they implemented new rules for wood stoves to lower the particulate matter(smoke) emissions. Coal stoves labeled as dual fuel cannot meet these regs while burning wood so they had to drop the dual fuel labeling.

In extreme cases in some states you cannot use an older wood stove and in others where they were Grandfathered in they have to be removed if you sell the house.